As a realtor, the foundation of your business success is the quality relationships you create. To do this, you require a real estate CRM system to stay in touch with your clients and attract referrals that sustain and keep your business going. Following is a four-step process for building effective client relationships as a real estate agent.
1. Creating Awareness
As a realtor, getting close to people should be a habit. This gives you the opportunity to create awareness about yourself and your business. Your potential customer must be aware of you to make contact that can result in a sale. Whether you create that awareness through personal conversations, a conference presentation or advertisements, this is the first step to building a client relationship. Invest in yourself as a brand that everyone around you is aware of.
2. Promote Personal Knowledge
The second step is to get personal. Have time for people and socialize. This may mean having lunch or dinner with friends and enjoying your favourite sport with another person. Initiate discussions about business, the economy, the money markets and much more. You may need to compare notes about your experiences, expectations about areas of common interest, and trade some private information.
Deliberately open your world to your client. Let them know you at a personal level. If there are questions the person may want to ask to know more about you, kindly give answers. Your objective is to allow people to get to know you better. Target people you frequently interact with at the church, sports club, your neighbourhood, community center, studios, etc. Project an image of a people person. Use social media and the internet to connect with others. Exchange ideas, thoughts and opinions, both online and offline. The aim is to connect with others, so they don’t see you as a stranger. For additional insights, Ixact Real Estate CRM is a useful resource to learn more information.
3. Be Sure the Client Likes You
The third step in building a relationship is to have the client like you. This will largely depend on your success in step two above. If the person doesn’t know you well, they may be apprehensive. Where the person has known you well enough, they will like you. Having demonstrated who you are and revealed what matters to you, there may be some attributes and interests that you share. This effectively creates a rapport that blossoms into the next step.
4. Build Trust
The goal here is to get the client to trust you. Your advice and counsel is a treasure to them. At this stage, you communicate regularly and share experiences and expertise as an agent. In a word, you have earned their trust. The client sees you as a resource and would be more than willing to refer friends and relatives to you. Although the trust is mutual, you get the added benefit of receiving referrals. It is this trust that would make a person to ditch their agent in your favour.
As a real estate agent, to be sought after, you must be aware of you, know you, like you and trust you. No one wants to engage with a stranger. Be deliberate in building effective relationships with your clients.
